New Delhi: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is going to retain power in Karnataka, with the party sealing 10 seats and leading in two others of the 15 assembly constituencies that went to by-polls on December 5.
The Congress has conceded defeat, saying that voters had “accepted defectors”, according to reports. “We have done very badly”, a shocked veteran Congress leader, who did not wish to be named told PTI.
Siddaramaiah has resigned as head of the Congress legislature party in the state after his party’s defeat. In a letter to interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Siddaramaiah expressed his sincere regrets for not being able to give “satisfactory results” in the by-elections.
“I deem it necessary to step down as Leader of the CLP by taking moral responsibility,” he wrote.
“As a CLP leader, there is a need to uphold the democratic principles. In the interest of the party, I have tendered my resignation as the CLP leader,” Siddaramaiah told reporters.
The results provide a significant boost to chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa, who came to power about four-months ago after the JD(S)-Congress coalition government fell after 17 of their MLAs resigned. They were disqualified by the then-assembly speaker. The Supreme Court upheld their disqualification, but allowed them to contest the by-polls. The BJP fielded 13 legislators who had been disqualified.
By-polls were held on December 5 for 15 of the 17 assembly seats that were vacated by the defecting MLAs. The BJP was required to win at least seven seats to retain its majority in the assembly. After the by-polls, the house will 222 members and two seats will remain vacant. The BJP currently has 105 MLAs and the support of one independent candidate, while the Congress has 66 and the JD(S) 34 legislators.
The BJP’s victory is a big blow to the Congress, which held 12 of the 15 seats before the by-polls. The other three were held by the JD(S).
The BJP’s Yellapur candidate Arabail Shivaram Hebbar became the first to register a victory in the by-polls. Hebbar defeated the Congress’s Bhimanna Naik by a margin of over 31,000 votes, poll officials said.
Scripting history by recording the first-ever win for the BJP in the Vokkaliga bastion of Mandya district, its candidate Narayana Gowda defeated B.L. Devaraj of the JD(S) by over 9,700 votes. BJP candidates in Hirekerur and Kagwad – B.C. Patil and Shrimant Patil – won by margins of 29,194 and 16,202 votes respectively.
According to PTI, early trends showed the Congress leading in the Shivajinagar and Hunsur constituencies, while the JD(S) and an independent candidate were ahead in the Yeshwanthpura and Hoskote constituencies respectively.
The JDS is trailing in all the 12 segments where it fielded candidates. Independent candidate Sharath Bachegowda from Hoskote was marching ahead towards victory.
Gopalaiah of the BJP has won the Mahalakshmi Layout seat against Girish K. Nashi of the JD(S). JD(S) patriarch H.D. Deve Gowda and former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy had extensively campaigned in this constituency to defeat Gopalaiah, who was a close confidant before he joined the BJP.
In Gokak that saw a battle between the Jarkiholi brothers, Ramesh Jarkiholi of the BJP defeated Lakhan from the Congress by a margin of 29,006 votes. Other BJP candidates who have won or are leading are: Anand Singh (Vijayanagara), K. Sudhakar (Chikkaballapura), Mahesh Kumthalli (Athani), Arun Kumar Guttur (Ranebennur), and Byrathi Basavaraj (K R Puram).
BJP’s rebel and independent candidate Sharath Bachegowda, son of Chikkaballapura BJP Lok Sabha member B.N. Bachegowda, was leading ahead of the party’s official candidate M.T.B. Nagaraj in Hoskote by a margin of 8,117 votes. After he refused to bow out of the electoral race, the BJP had expelled Sharath from the party.
Among 13 disqualified legislators fielded by the BJP as party candidates for the by-polls, 10 are defeating their opponent candidates.
(With PTI inputs)